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Community Forum ~ continued from February 2018 issue pdf page 3

Published: February 8th, 2018

Appendix 1. DC Water Chronology:

1972 US Federal Clean Water Act is enacted.

1973 Congress approves “Limited Home Rule” transferring responsibility, but little funding, for the city’s 100-year old Combined Sewer System (CSS), built by the US Army Corps of Engineers transferred to DC government. During heavy rains, CSS outflows of raw sewage and pollutants from roadways flood into the Anacostia and Potomac Rivers and Rock Creek.

2008 The Congressional Budget Office report “Issues and Options in Infrastructure Investment: Federal Capital Spending on Transportation and Water Infrastructure” argues for Federal investment in the National Capital region.

2009 George Hawkins appointed CEO and General Manager of the DC Water and Sewer Authority, and re-brands it “DC Water”.

2009 DC Water announces a schedule of Clean Rivers Impervious Area Charges (CRIAC) to fund the LTCP or Clean Rivers Project, rates to rise from $1.24 per equivalent residential area unit in 2009 to $28.77 in 2019. (According to DC Water: “The charge is based on an The charge is based on an Equivalent Residential Unit (ERU). An ERU is a statistical median of the amount of impervious surface area in a single-family residential property, measured in square feet. The approved monthly ERU values for FY 2017 and FY 2018 are $22.24 and $25.18 respectively . . . Today, our rate structure is designed to better allocate system costs across our three customer classes, Residential, Multi-Family, and Non-Residential.”)

Appendix 2. The Charges on Your DC Water Bill include:

One fee for water consumption, one fee for sewerage-and-wastewater treatment services.

Three additional “surcharges” paid to DC Water for Clean Rivers Impervious Area Charges (CRIAC or IAC), Customer Metering Fee, and Water System Replacement Fee.

Three fees paid directly to DC government for DC Water include Payment-in-Lieu-of-Taxes (PILOT tax), ight-of-Way fee, and storm water fee for the sewer system managed by DOEE).

They pay a 10% late fee on all monthly bills; liens may be placed on their property for arrearages in payments.